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Collaborative Information Architecture

You’ve worked hard on the information architecture models you’ve created but haven’t been able to sell them to the client, or your co-workers. Maybe the conversation around the IA has broken down into an unhealthy debate over semantics. In another scenario, you are tasked with creating a controlled vocabulary for a large organization that has a silo mentality and a lot of legacy content. Where to begin?

These scenarios will sound familiar to most user experience professionals. In this deck, I share my techniques for getting an organization that may have different ideas about how to organize and name content to agree upon a controlled vocabulary.

I also share specific tools in the form of diagrams, beyond the ubiquitous sitemap and wireframe, which communicate complex ideas. And techniques for practicing information architecture with clients collaboratively.

4.
what Problems does talking
about Ia help to alleviate?
• Disputes over what to call things
• Lack of clarity on what things “are”
• Overlaps in functionality & duplication of effort
• Lack of prioritization of audiences or goals
• Technical debt created by inconsistency or lack of
reusability of patterns
• Organizational inefﬁciency due to communication heft

6.
What conflicts are common?
• Speaking different languages based on role
• Arguing about priority through a lens of organizational politics
• “This is how we have always done it” thinking
• Lacksonomy instead of taxonomy
• Other competencies ignoring or over-riding decisions made by IA
• Other competencies seeing IA as cosmetic and arbitrary
decisions
• Lack of time or budget for collaboration, testing and iteration

7.
Story time
• The company Jen works for has been in operation for
40 years, with thousands of employees across many
diverse competencies
• They have 40 years worth of legacy language and
functionality in their suite of products
• Jen, a UX designer, has only been there for 6 months
but it has taken her that long to understand the
organization and feel like she knows what’s going on
• The company is growing, especially in design, and Jen
raises the concern about language to her boss, Ann

8.
a hypothetical conversation
between Jen and ann
• Jen: “So I am just getting a handle on the language we use and
with all these new designers we are hiring I worry that they are
going to have to spend a lot of time learning all this just to get
started”
• Ann: “Hmm, any ideas on how we might help them get a faster
start?”
• Jen: “I was thinking maybe I could create a lexicon that they
could refer to in order to understand some of the terms we use,
especially the acronyms”
• Ann: “That’s a great idea! What do you need to get that done?”
• Jen: “Well I need time, but I was also thinking it would be good
to have a partner from outside design to work on this with. I was
thinking Ben from product management would be helpful
because he has been here for almost a decade.”

9.
Jen and Ben set out to get
the lexicon started
• In their ﬁrst meeting they brainstorm the most difﬁcult to understand
concepts within the company and attempt to write a deﬁnition of them
• For each concept they discuss, Jen is shocked that her understanding
of these terms is much different than Ben’s
• Jen is also surprised to hear the history behind some of these terms
and decides that those points are important to capture for others to
learn from
• Jen starts using a whiteboard to draw her understanding and have Ben
show her how his is different than hers
• By the end of the meeting they are both exhausted but also excited that
they have made so much progress on understanding these concepts.
Jen leaves with a great start to the lexicon she is working on
• Ben sends Ann an email asking if Jen can share the ﬁnal lexicon with
his team of product managers and engineers when it is done

10.
What could Jen have done
differently to mess this up?
• Jen could have written the lexicon alone based on her
understanding of the concepts and not asked for Ben’s help
• Jen could have written a draft of the lexicon and presented it
to Ben for his feedback, making the meeting more of a critique
• Jen could have emailed Ben a list of words and asked him to
write deﬁnitions of them for her (spoiler alert: he may have
never answered the email, taken forever to answer or written
overly complex and/or confusing deﬁnitions she would then
have to ask tons of questions about)
• Jen could have spent the whole time talking to Ben trying to
understand his point of view instead of picking up a marker
• Jen could have gotten frustrated over their lack of common
understanding and given up on the exercise entirely

11.
what does this story teach us?
• Lesson 1: People can assume they understand
something clearly, until they compare that
understanding with another person’s
• Lesson 2: Complex deﬁnitions are sometimes
easier to discuss visually than just verbally
• Lesson 3: Deﬁning concepts can be seen as a
helpful activity when done collaboratively and cross
functionally. The same activity when done in a silo
can be frustrating and seen as a waste of time

12.
How can I make time or get time
for information architecture?
• Don’t ask for time for “doing the IA” — instead bake
talking about language and structure into every
interaction you have throughout the process
• Document the conﬂicts that need to be talked
through and explain the people and process you
need to resolve the conﬂicts
• Explain the ramiﬁcations of not resolving these
conﬂicts and building on “shaky ground”
• Be ok with the decision or mandate to build on shaky
ground (I use the three times at bat rule for pushing
back)

13.
How does Ia fit into different
process styles?
• Agile: In Agile language and structure is deﬁned very quickly
meaning that IA needs to be an ongoing discussion. Advice here
is to make sure there are KPIs being measured around structural
and linguistic integrity. Also make sure the IA documents are
shared and editable by anyone in the organization.
• Waterfall: In waterfall, you are more likely to be asked to create a
stopping point after which IA is “complete.” Advice here is to try to
position IA as something that isn't ever set completely, so that it is
shared amongst all stages of the process. This means that things
like maps and controlled vocabularies are continually updated
throughout the project.

15.
How do I communicate Ia to my
organization?
• “Information architecture is a practice of deciding how to arrange
the parts of something to make sense as a whole. Because
what we call things and how we arrange them makes a big
difference to whether our users will understand us”
• “IA always exists, whether of not we think about it. If we don’t
think about it we are letting it grow organically which isn't always
the clearest and most effective way forward”
• “By thinking about IA our team can make sure that the language
and structures we choose will help us to reach our intention”
• “IA is best practiced collaboratively, so while I can help to
facilitate us thinking about our IA, I can’t do this without help of
others in the organization”

16.
Dos and Donts of Communicating
Ia in an organization
• Don’t talk about IA
as a step in the
process
• Don’t propose IA as
a gate you have to
get through
• Don’t talk about the
concepts, talk about
the results
• Don’t try to own the
IA as an individual
• Do ﬁnd places within the process
to talk about the clarity of
language and structure
• Do talk about IA as something
that will continue to grow and
change over time
• Do ask questions throughout the
project that makes it clear that
talking about IA is important
• Do assemble a group of people
that share the responsibility of
making IA decisions over time

18.
Identify the right stakeholders
• Use the organization
chart to visualize who you
plan to talk to
• Make sure you are talking
to enough representative
people across the org
both in terms of level and
area of focus

20.
Design the conversation
• Position: Establish where this person sits in the space you are
exploring
• Convictions: Understand what they believe to be true and why
• Doubts: Understand what they have a hard time believing, what
makes them nervous and why
• Color: Ask anything else that will help to color in their
responses to their previous questions
• Questions: Always let them ask you questions. Sometimes the
best stuff comes out from what they ask

21.
Some of my go-to questions
• If you had a magic wand and could change any one thing about
_________ what would it be and why?
• What do you see as the strengths of ___________? What about
the weaknesses?
• Is there any language that you see getting in the way of
communicating with our customers?
• Is there any language that you see getting in the way of
communicating internally?
• Is there anything I haven't ask about that you think I should know?

22.
Some pointers
• Listen more than you speak. This is not your time to prove
how smart you are or share ideas or perceptions you have
• Leave silence. If they need time to think about their answer
leave them the silence to do so, don't react by expanding on
your question or rewording
• Record your interviews so you can be more active in listening
and making eye contact. Take simple notes throughout to
show that you are getting something out of the conversation
• Keep your notes in a spreadsheet organized by question so
you can sense patterns more easily
• If you take notes right after each interview, you will be more
likely to stay engaged in the material and it feels less like a
slog to get through

24.
Seek Patterns & Divergence of
Opinions
• Look ﬁrst for the things that people agree on. Write a compelling headline for each.
• Look second for the things that people are not in agreement over. Write a compelling
headline for each.
• After making a list of all the headlines in a spreadsheet, assign keywords to each to see
how they may be related to one another
• Area of the product/experience
• Sentiment of the concern
• Heuristic principle that is illustrated
• Start sorting by the keywords to see what emerges
• Create logical groupings of ﬁndings connected by a theme
• Decide the right order to present ﬁndings in

25.
Example from my work
Example of Findings Spreadsheet
Example of Findings Presentation

26.
Be the mirror
• If you think a point is obvious, make it anyways
• Present the why, not just the what
• Share quotes from interviews without attribution to get points
across that are tough to make
• Don’t let your opinions leak into what you present
• Say the thing that everyone was talking around but not saying
• Ask questions of the group based on what you heard
• Present both sides of anything that might be disagreed on
• Visualize mental models that differ from one another

27.
How to have low fidelity group
conversations about language
• Set an agenda with time blocks and share it with attendees so they
know where you are going with this activity
• Start by asking the group about opportunities and risks that this
session has. Have everyone write their answers and then go
around and share with the room.
• Arrange the agenda from broad to speciﬁc
• Breakdown mental models slowly:
• Start with giving people time to think individually
• Then pair people up to compare notes
• Then have pairs combine into small groups
• Finally open to full group discussion

29.
What about for really big
groups?
• Facilitate smaller groups with similar mental models to get to know
their thought process better
• Identify one person who can represent that group in a larger, more
cross functional group. This person should be:
• Interested in the activity
• Allowed to take action
• Willing to listen and participate in semantic debate

30.
pointers for Running a
collaborative ia session
• Ask people to set aside technology for the session (don’t allow the
“I’m taking notes” excuse… they aren’t, instead establish a note
taker for the group and project their screen as they take notes)
• Don’t be afraid to call on someone who hasn't spoken up
• Always establish a parking lot for topics that leak into the meeting
that aren't the focus. Allow anyone to call “parking lot”, and make
sure it gets written down so it is actually parked.
• Always position collaborative sessions as exploratory, meaning
there are no bad ideas or wrong ways of thinking
• Ask for honesty AND kindness as activities are undertaken
• Always end a session by asking for advice of your participants. “As
you know, I will be working on the things we talked about today,
what advice do you have for me?”

31.
Visualize language with simple
pictures to get clarity
• Draw and Share: Have your attendees draw the
concept in the way that they understand it and
compare their drawings with each other
• Round 1: Individual Draw
• Round 2: Pair Draw
• Round 3: Groups of 4 Draw
• Round 4: Facilitated Draw
• Pictionary: Have one attendee draw their
understanding of a concept so that others can react to
it and ask questions

33.
Dealing with difficult people
• Identify anyone who is potentially difﬁcult during the stakeholder
interview process. Spend extra energy making sure that person
feels heard and understands the process they are taking part in
• If things get heated in the session, give that person the marker
and ask them to visualize the conﬂict as they see it
• Take their side for the sake of clarifying the conﬂict. “I think I see
what so-and-so is saying here…”
• If they are mean or inappropriate, tell them that is not productive
to the discussion and remind them that this collaboration involves
seeing many sides of the same argument
• Don’t be dismissive of their opinion or ideas but make them
explain themselves and answer to others’ questions about it

35.
How to Mine for language
Language in
the product
Language in
the marketing
Language in
help & support
Language we
use internally
Language users
use naturally
• Look for needless duplicity
• Look for legacy terms that
have stuck around
• Look for inside baseball terms
that might not be clear to users

37.
ask questions about efficiency,
clarity and intention
Do we need all
five labels for
this thing?
Are these really
the same model
with two labels
or two different
concepts?

38.
Is this a difference of Model or
simply a difference of Label?
vs.

39.
Sometimes different labels for
the same thing is appropriate!
(on mobile) (on desktop)
vs.

40.
Tips for mining for language
• Start with nouns. Take on verbs secondarily. Beware of
adjectives.
• Use notes from user and stakeholder interviews to layer
on verbal only language that might be useful to
understand in connection with documented language
• Ask questions like:
• “When you say _____ what do you mean?”
• “Is _____ the same as ______?
• “Why did we start calling it _________?”

41.
Controlled Vocabularies
Term Deﬁnition History Approved Synonyms
• A good controlled vocabulary:
• Captures the history of a term
• Lists the other words that may describe the same model
• Deﬁnes terms simply and deﬁnes words within the deﬁnition

42.
Ideas to get people to actually
use the controlled vocabulary
• When ﬁrst created: consider distribution through a “word of
the day” feature
• To get people to retire terms: Make posters of “words we
don't say” and post them in the meeting spaces around your
ofﬁce — when all else fails, try using a gym whistle
• To make sure it stays fresh: Create a cross functional
working group to govern upkeep of language documentation.
These folks are like resident advisors for ontological choices.
They help resolve linguistic issues and educate others on the
documentation available
• To make sure it is adhered to: Make a linguistic review part
of the standards that are expected to be adhered to in terms of
style guides or launch checklists

43.
Story time: why It is important to
define the words within the words

58.
Tips for Collaborating on
diagrams
• Share the work of writing and drawing with your partners
• Take the time and space needed to get through the
material, don’t rush or exhaust people
• For more complex subject matter, take it in rounds - not
all at once
• Keep it messy and low ﬁdelity until the content is feeling
solid enough to get conﬁrmation on
• Always have a format in mind when collecting but stay
ﬂexible as you ﬁgure out what is needed

59.
Tips for getting feedback on
diagrams
• Share the diagram ahead of a critique meeting for people
to spend time looking at
• Take the time to sit down with a few key stakeholders one
on one to show them the diagram with the intent to make
it clear. Don’t spend this time convincing them. You are
usability testing the diagram and they are your users
• Keep the visual polish off the diagram until the content
has been conﬁrmed, this makes it quicker for you to edit
but also encourages feedback
• Always ask for critical feedback on how to make it more
clear and try to not defend or explain things you think are
already clear

61.
What I hope you learned today:
• Too much IA is practiced solo, and presented to others
• By sharing the responsibility we can get further, faster
• Practicing IA collaboratively means putting aside your
ego (and sometimes your ideas)
• There is no singular process or deﬁning
documentation technique that always works,
prescribing is part of the work
• Anyone can practice IA, and more people should be

62.
I wrote a book
about information
architecture for
everybody!
http://
abbytheia.com/
makesense/